


Grand Escape

by esama



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 18:17:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1135890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Mizuki gets Naruto to steal the scroll, he and the entire village of Hidden Leaf find that misled Naruto is a force to be reckoned with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grand Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on fanfiction.net on 12/11/2009  
> Proofread by Darlene and Spurio

Mizuki smiled to himself while making his way towards his little thief. His plan was going perfectly, absolutely perfectly. With most of the ninja forces raking up and down the village - and Iruka safely misled to believe that Naruto was in the woods on other side of the village - the fruits of his labour were ripe for taking. Or, as it probably should be, the fruits of Naruto's labour were ripe for Mizuki to take.

 _'This was much easier than I thought. Much, much easier,'_ the Chuunin chuckled. _'That fool Iruka, really thinking that Naruto would go to the place where he usually trains. Given, Naruto probably would've if I hadn't directed him here instead…'_

His smile widened as he looked around in the forest. This part of the forest was pretty new, planted only some dozen years earlier after it had been destroyed by the Kyubi. As a result, the enthusiastically growing new forest was too thick and the young trees were too thin for it to serve as good training grounds - and the wild undergrowth made it an unpleasant place for spending time. No one would find Naruto here. _'Not with that brat's stealth skills, anyway.'_

Speeding up his movements, he looked around in hopes of glimpsing the eye catching orange uniform. Naruto was really an enigma at times, and that stupid jumper of his was the peak of that enigma. _'Well, it doesn't matter now. I will find him, kill him and then I will get the scroll…'_ and then he would leave, go somewhere where no one would find him. He would read through the scroll and master it and then… then he would be unstoppable. _'Now, I only need to find that demon.'_

Finally, he caught a flash of bright orange and yellow. Grinning wildly before smothering the expression hurriedly, he made his way to the boy. Naruto was sitting in the ground, breathing heavily. _'Why isn't this cute, the little brat has been trying the jutsu in the scroll! As if he could ever master a single one of those forbidden arts!'_ the Chuunin snorted in his mind. _'He's a hundred years too early to try.'_

"Naruto," Mizuki called, catching the boy's attention. When the brat looked up, sweat pouring down his face, he smiled. "You did very well. I was watching you." Crouching beside the now grinning boy, he raised his eyebrows. "Have you managed to learn anything?"

"Hmhm. Maybe," the boy grinned wildly. "I'll show it to you and Iruka-sensei tomorrow and then you'll have to make me Genin! Yep, yep!" he threw his hands up in air in victory before looking at the man with gratitude. "I'm really grateful that you told me about the scroll, Mizuki-sensei. I would've never managed without it."

 _'Bah, really? He really thinks he actually can do a forbidden art?'_ the Chuunin wondered with scorn. _'He's even more deluded than I thought.'_ "Well, we shall see tomorrow how well you learned, won't we?" he asked. "Now, hand the scroll to me. It's time it's returned to the HokageTower, don't you think?"

"Nah, I want to take it myself," the boy said and stood up with a huff. He stretched his arms with a grin and then shrugged sheepishly. "I wanna apologise to the old man for startling him and all."

"No I think it's really best I take the scroll, Naruto. That way I can explain the whole thing to them," Mizuki said with a reassuring smile. "If you show up with the scroll just after stealing it, they might get the wrong idea, don't you think? They'll believe me when I tell them why you did it."

The boy hesitated before shrugging. "Well, I guess that's true…" he finally said and hoisted the scroll from his back.  "Here."

 _'Gullible fool,'_ Mizuki chuckled inside his mind while taking the scroll. Then he promptly swung a hit at the boy to the back of his neck, knocking him to the ground. "Foolish little demon," he muttered while hoisting the scroll to his back. "Well you had your uses. Now, to finish you off…" _'And then I'll get rid of the body. It'll look like he ran away with the scroll, so it's perfect…'_

But as he reached for his kunai, he heard a cough from where Naruto had collapsed. "What… Mizuki-sensei? Why did you hit me?" Naruto asked. When the Chuunin turned to look at him with surprise, he found the boy rubbing his neck with confusion. "That _hurt,_ you know."

"What… why aren't you…?" Mizuki raised his eyebrows and the frowned. _'That should've knocked him out! But of course, he's a demon. It takes more than that,'_ he mused and then grinned widely. "Well, no matter. You poor little bastard. Can't even understand betrayal even when it stands right in front of you."

As Naruto gave him a look of utter confusion, he laughed and crouched beside the boy. "Naruto, Naruto, Naruto… Don't you see? I used you to get this for me," Mizuki said, tugging on the strap keeping the scroll on his back. "This is one of the most valuable, most dangerous things in this village. It lists most of the kinjutsu, forbidden arts, which are known to Hidden Leaf. The one who has it, the one who masters it… will be incredibly powerful."

With a smile, he pointed his kunai at the boy's neck while the little demon continued to look bewildered. "And now that I have this scroll, I will be powerful. And no one will know because it was _you_ who stole it, _you_ who will get the blame for it. After all, who would suspect me, the understanding and kind academy teacher that everyone likes? No one, when there is you to blame… you demon."

"Demon?" Naruto asked softly.

"Oh, didn't you know? Well, of course you didn't. After all, there is this law – a law you were never meant to find out about. About it. About you," Mizuki grinned. "Do you remember the history class about the event that took place twelve years ago? About the incident that took the lives of several good ninja - and our own beloved leader, the Fourth Hokage…? The incident with the demon."

"Kyubi," the boy nodded with a swallow of trepidation.

"Exactly. Unlike what you kids are told, the Fourth never managed to kill the demon. Instead, the demon fox was sealed away and a law was put in place. Those who knew about it were never to speak of it. Not to their children, not to you," the Chuunin laughed and leaned forward. "No one was to speak of the fact that you, Uzumaki Naruto, are the demon fox Kyubi."

The wide eyed look of shock in the boy's face was almost comical. "…what?"

"You are the nine tailed demon fox who killed so many people. Who destroyed so much of Hidden Leaf and who, among many great shinobi, killed our most loved leader. The Fourth, whom you so admire, you killed while he sealed you into a human form," Mizuki shook his head mockingly. "Didn't you ever wonder why everyone hated you so much? Didn't you find it odd at all? Iruka too. After all, you killed his parents who were also ninja."

He chuckled. "This scroll you stole, the art used to seal you up is in it. And now you stole it and everyone knows it. Of course, everyone knows why you did it, too. You want to free yourself from this human container, right? You want to get back to the killing. Maybe you want to kill the Hokage and Iruka. After all, they hate you, why shouldn't you hate them? They are only waiting to see if they can control you, make use of the demon they sealed, before they kill you…"

Mizuki shook his head almost pityingly. "You were perfect for me to use. Did you know that you have the best stealth skills the Academy has seen in over five years? You also have the best Henge in your class. But in comparison, your Taijutsu is astonishingly horrible and you can't do a Bunshin to save your life. Did you ever wonder why?"

Naruto shook his head, his eyes bright with moistness and confused grief.

"It's because after we noticed how easily you learned Henge, we stopped teaching you properly. You had stealth even before you joined the academy so we taught Taijutsu to you as poorly as we could," Mizuki snorted. "We made sure you didn't understand Charka properly, we even organized your tests to be much more complicated than anyone else's in the class. You were even handed different text books… Because after all, we didn't _want_ to teach you to be good. So we taught you as badly as we could…"

He burst into laughter when Naruto's eyes moistened and tears ran down the brat's whiskered cheeks. "What are you doing, you monster? Demons don't cry, they have no emotions, they feel no remorse! Everyone knows this; they know that you killed those ninja, and that you enjoyed it! This display of emotions is nothing but a sham!"

His chuckle faded as he pressed the kunai against the boy's throat. "Well, no matter. It'll just make this easier for me. I'll kill you and then destroy your body. The people of Hidden Leaf will believe the simplest truth - that you ran away with the scroll to use it to get your revenge. And the legend of the demon fox - sorry, your legend - will continue on… without you."

He pulled his hand back to slash the boy's throat open with his kunai, but before he could, Naruto's eyes darkened and his hands formed a strange seal. "Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," the boy murmured, and thousands of Narutos was the last thing Mizuki saw before dozens of fists attempted to connect with his flesh all at once.

 

* * *

 

Naruto's hands still shook with the shock and sorrow and anger which were churning inside him like a bad batch of ramen, as he took the huge scroll from his teacher's back. _'Former teacher,'_ he corrected in his mind with irritation while throwing the scroll onto his back and glaring down at the white haired man. Then, with an anger he had never felt, he stomped his foot on the man's crotch as hard as he could. _'Asshole.'_

The sight of Mizuki twitching even in his unconscious state was satisfying, but he knew he didn't have the time for it. Mizuki had probably told everyone that he had stolen the scroll, to pin the blame on him. They were looking for him. Iruka too.

"Bastard," Naruto muttered to the unconscious Chuunin before turning to his clones that were still standing around him, just as angry as he was, just as anxious. "I gotta run," he said to them. "I'm not staying here now that I know… now that I know all this," he motioned at the unconscious man. "So I'm gonna run away somewhere, where… where people won't fool me. Won't treat me like trash. Won't use me."

"What about being Hokage?" one clone asked worriedly.

Naruto hesitated before putting up a brave face. "Screw that. Who would want to be Hokage for this place?! No way!" he said, pointing the others accusingly. "We'll be better than that. We… could be like wandering ninjas, take missions we want from people we want and that's it. Heck we could even make our own village or something! Anything's better than staying here."

It was mostly just hot air, but the clones nodded, some solemnly, and some excitedly. "They might catch you, though," one of the copies said while other nodded in agreement. "We're not that fast." Naruto wasn't fool enough to think that he could run away from ninja. He had tried and failed at it often enough.

"Yeah, yeah… and if the scroll's as hot as Mizuki thought, then they're gonna be coming after me pretty quick. Gotta come up with a plan," Naruto agreed and fell into deep thought. After a moment of contemplation, he decided that a diversion was in order. And considering his crime and how many people would no doubt be after him the diversion needed to be massive. Thankfully, he could do massive.

"Alright, I got a plan. And you guys are gonna be it. You're gonna be the first wave of my diversion army," Naruto said, pointing at some of the clones. "You there will spread out and just run away from Hidden Leaf as fast as you can" he said, thenpointed at another group. "You will go into village and hide as well as you can. The rest of you will stay in the woods around Hidden Leaf and hide. People will think you are me, so they will waste time trying to take you in."

Checking that the scroll was safely on his back, he formed a seal and launched another Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Unlike the older clones, these ones had the scroll in their backs as well. "You new guys will be my, how did go... long range diversion. Yep. You there," he motioned at some of the new clones, "will be the... um... generals. Yeah! The rest of you will be the soldiers and stuff and follow them. The generals will go different ways with some soldiers following them and going ahead of them and stuff. The generals will try hiding as well as they can, pretend that they're me trying use the rest as distraction. The rest will be out in the open as bait."

The clones nodded in agreement. "How about you?" one of the generals asked, folding his arms. "Running alone you'll be caught pretty quickly."

"I know, that's why I will be a soldier in one of the long range diversion armies," Naruto said and looked at the other clones. "Any questions?" The clones looked at each other and shrugged. Naruto nodded with satisfaction. "Alright then. Let's fly."

While the older clones ran to their appointed tasks, the generals glanced at each other and picked the directions they were going to head in to avoid running in the same direction. With that done, the second wave of Naruto's clone army took off, with the real Naruto hidden amongst them.

 

* * *

 

"Well, that was certainly interesting," Sarutobi Hiruzen murmured while looking down to his crystal orb which allowed him to see just about anything in Hidden Leaf. The orb was connected to the eyes of the several birds all around the village - most of the ninja birds specifically designed for this tasks - and he was lucky enough that one of the birds had found Naruto and Mizuki.

But it was too little too late. He had only managed to catch the end of Mizuki's monologue to Naruto before the boy had, in surprising display of skill, defeated the man within a minute. It was obvious that Mizuki had told enough to make Naruto snap, though, as the boy was now bent on running away.

 _'And with a plan too,'_ the Hokage mused with worried amusement. It was a messy plan, but still surprisingly intricate to have been born so quickly and in such a situation - and from Naruto of all people. _'Well, he has always been good at escape plans,'_ the old man mused, thinking back to the dozens of times Naruto had successfully ran from the scene of the crime after delivering a prank. Sometimes it had felt like Naruto only got caught if the prank wasn't that serious or he wanted to get the full credit of his work. In short, he only got caught when he wanted to be caught.

This wasn't a prank, though, and the plan wouldn't do Naruto much good. The boy wouldn't be able to get out of Hidden Leaf - the village walls would stop him before he could ever get out. _'And if nothing else, he will be like a sore thumb among his clones. Creating that many that fast must've left him very tired… even with his stamina.'_

His ninja would catch the boy and deliver him to the Hokage tower. Then Hiruzen would sort the whole mess out, point the blame where it belonged and explain it all to Naruto - explain that not everyone in the village had betrayed him or used him, that no one actually had. Even if the village was... rough on the boy, no one had ever really been close enough to the boy to betray him and he knew fully well that Naruto had never been harmed by the villagers - he had made sure of it. It had been rough on the boy, but no betrayal had happened, all he had suffered was the contempt. But not everyone in the village hated him, Hiruzen didn't, Iruka didn't, several others didn't. In truth, the higher level ninja had rather neutral disposition towards the boy. And Naruto deserved to know that.

 _'It's only matter of time…'_ the Hokage mused and then looked down to the orb, only to realise that he had utterly and completely lost track of the original Naruto, and that the bird was following a clump of clones without any indication if the original was among them. For a moment he panicked before realising that as long as Naruto was still among them, it was good enough.

 _'We'll find the real one and he will be caught,'_ he thought with certainty and tried to ignore the twinge of worry he suddenly felt. _'Maybe I should send word to the search teams to target the Narutos with the scroll and leave the ones without it alone…'_

It was then he realised that none of the search parties even knew that Naruto _knew_ clone jutsus. Actually, it was a well known fact that he couldn't do clones. When they'd discover just one, they would have no doubt that they had caught the right one. _'Oh dear.'_

 

* * *

 

"Naruto! Stop right there!" Iruka yelled at the sight of yellow hair and orange jumper, running amongst the trees. "Damn it, stop! What do you think you're doing?!"

"You'll never catch me, you Nose-Bleeder-sensei!" the boy taunted from amongst the trees and ran on. He was quick, but he wasn't even a Genin yet, so it didn't take much for the Chuunin to catch up to him - and grab him with a quick lunge. "Ack! Damn it! Let me go!" the boy spluttered, waving and kicking, but the teacher had enough experience to make the hold strong enough to withstand. "Let me go!"

"No!" Iruka growled while throwing the boy to the ground. "What are you thinking, stealing the Hokage's important scroll? You could get court-martialled for doing something like this, even if you're just doing it as a joke! You idiot!"

"Can't court-martial a civilian, yanno," Naruto muttered while trying to kick him. "Let me go, you asshole!"

"Settle down you idiot," Iruka muttered and frowned. Something was missing. "Naruto, where is the scroll?" he asked and frowned. "You didn't leave it somewhere, did you? That is a very important, very dangerous thing, you know? What if someone, what if an enemy finds it?! They could do some very nasty things with it!"

"Someone like a demon?" the boy asked with a frown before harrumphing angrily. "I'm never giving it to you. Or anyone else. It's mine now! I'm not letting anyone have it before I've read it through and through and learned every single thing in it!"

 _'Someone like a demon? What?'_ Iruka wondered with a sudden dread and eased his hold on the boy. "Naruto --" he started to speak, but before he could, the boy wiggled out of his grasp and brought his hands into a sloppy seal.

"Oiroke no jutsu!" the boy sang mockingly and with a soft explosion of smoke, a naked woman appeared where Naruto had laid before. She cooed at the teacher softly while twisting her upper body and grinding suggestively up against the man. "Iruka-kuun…" she whined at the wide eyed man teasingly.

"Naruto, you --!" the enraged Chuunin started to get up hurriedly, never noticing the second blonde boy who had snuck up on him. The last thing Iruka felt without falling unconscious was a second Naruto clone applying the same chop Mizuki had tried to use on him, and knocking the teacher out cold.

"You know, it's a bit of a bother," the second clone said while giving a hand to the one Iruka had 'captured'. "I kind of liked Iruka-sensei. He could be a bastard and did yell and hit me a lot, but he treated me to ramen. That was… nice you know."

"I know," the other clone sighed while releasing the jutsu he had used to transform. Folding his hands, he looked down to the unconscious ninja. "I guess that just tells us how good ninja are at fooling people."

"Yeah. Assholes," the second Naruto agreed. The two of them kicked the fallen ninja for good measure before splitting up like their original had ordered.

All around the village and the woods, similar encounters were occurring. Some of the clones managed to escape, but with so many of them around some were also caught and dragged to the HokageTower. With some dozen Narutos sitting in a row, tied up and jeering at their captors for their stupidity, it didn't take long for the shinobi after Naruto to realise that there were too many Narutos around for it to be normal. "But I thought the brat didn't know Bunshin?" someone asked, before they soon realised that it was not Bunshin no Jutsu at all.

By that time, it was a little too late. The clone Generals had already reached the village walls and with most of the shinobi of the village busy with the other clones, they formed human ladders to climb the walls. Long before the clones in the woods and inside the village had been caught, the two dozen clone generals had already gotten their teams out of Hidden Leaf and had sped off in different directions.

 

* * *

 

"You must send out hunter nin teams," Koharu demanded when more and more shinobi had returned to the tower empty handed, only with tales of how many clones they had encountered and dispersed. And there was no end to the Naruto-copies in sight. "That scroll could mean the end of Hidden Leaf as we know it should it fall into the hands of our enemies. It must be returned."

"How did a child of twelve, who hasn't even passed his Genin exam despite three tries, manage to steal the scroll anyway?" Homura asked with confusion. "There are ANBU stationed at the tower at all times!"

"If Naruto is good at something, it is avoiding other ninjas, and he has done enough pranks at the tower to know the usual stations of the guards," Hiruzen answered with mild irritation, promising himself never to tell that he had seen Naruto in the tower - and had then promptly fallen victim to the boy's mockery of a genjutsu. _'Not much of a mockery, thought. That boy managed to defeat me, a Hokage, with mere Henge,'_ he mused. "Naruto is good at escaping as well. With his pranks, he has had more than enough chances to practice stealth and diversion."

Homura snorted with mild amusement but turned his eyes hurriedly away when Koharu threw a glare at him. "This is not the time to marvel about the boy's skills. What is important is that scroll and its successful retrieval," she snapped and turned her glare to the Hokage. "Send the oinin. And someone who specialises in hunting down clone specialists. Finding a mere boy shouldn't be hard for them. It's especially important if he is among the clones that got out of the village."

"Yes. Yes it is," the Hokage murmured. The whole chase was amusing him, the night had been the most entertaining one he’d had in a few years, but he was not unaware of the dangers of the scroll falling into enemy hands. He steeled himself before looking at his two advisors. "I will send retrieval teams. But they will not be permitted to kill Naruto. He is _not_ a ninja. Nor an adult. And we cannot treat him as if he was. The main objective will be the retrieval of the scroll, and Naruto's safe capture without harming the boy."

The two nodded. "Agreed. Naruto shouldn't be harmed," Homura said. "He is the legacy of the Fourth Hokage, after all."

"And will be one heck of ninja once we set this mess straight," Hiruzen muttered with a frown. He would need to deal with the Academy too, if what Mizuki had said was right. He chuckled helplessly. Naruto was quite under trained and possibly sabotaged, still… "Within a single night he has managed to fool each and every shinobi I sent after him. That is almost admirable."

Shaking the thought out his head, he glanced up. "Get me the oinin," he spoke, directing his voice to the ANBU operative hidden always somewhere within hearing range. "It's time we put an end to this game of hide and seek."

 

* * *

 

Naruto smothered giggles as he ran among a crowd of clones. As his clones were being dispersed in Hidden Leaf one by one, he found himself receiving their memories. The faces of the ninja who just realised that they were dealing with a clone instead of the original were hilarious. Some the clones managed to outwit them for a long while – a few had even been dragged all the way to the Hokage tower before they had dispersed much to the horror of their captors.

His amusement ended shortly and he almost stumbled mid step. One of the soldier clone teams was suddenly gone, along with their general - and though all of them dispersed, none of the memories received explained how. They had just been there one moment, and not in the next. _'Shit,'_ the boy thought with a frown. Something better and stealthier than your average Chuunin and Jounin had been sent after him. It was probably the masked guys, one type or another - the ones who always caught him if the Hokage got pissed at him enough to send them. Either way, things were getting worse.

As another group of soldiers was dispersed without any hint of who did it, Naruto quickly started to plan another diversion. _'Doing all those clones - and after I spent all of my stamina in training - hasn't left me with energy for much. I can't do more clones, at least not as much of them as I did before…'_

He thought about it for a moment before grinning. While the clones around him were distracted, Naruto made a hurried combination of Kage Bunshin and Henge. None of the clones noticed the appearance of another clone and disappearance of Naruto, who now was holding onto the sandal of his newest clone as a very clingy spider.

 _'Haha! Henge isn't my strength for nothing!'_ the boy thought wickedly. _'This way even if these clones are dispersed, I'll be safe and hidden…'_ unless whoever was knocking out his clones was targeting their footwear, that was.

The feeling of triumph however lasted only for so long. Then Naruto realised that the rhythm of his clone's footsteps was bouncy. _Very_ bouncy.  As more clones were dispersed elsewhere and his group continued to run, Naruto was forced to concentrate on combating nausea.

 

* * *

 

 _'There's another one'_ one of the four hunter-nin's sent out to capture Uzumaki Naruto thought as he saw another orange clothed boy with painfully yellow hair. _'Really, how could this kid fool so many ninja? And what sort of ninja in training wears orange of all things?'_

Well it wasn't his problem. His duty was only to disperse the clones and capture the original as well as the scroll the boy had stolen from the HokageTower. The Hokage would deal with the rest, and would hopefully discipline the boy severely. _'He is wasting the time of our entire village with this idiotic stunt of his… and some of us do not enjoy being woken in the middle of the night to hunt down school children.'_

With perhaps more strength than strictly required, the hunter-nin threw a piece of stone he had grabbed from the ground earlier. Easiest way to disperse a shadow clone of unskilled user was by sharp trauma, just enough to send a shock of pain through the body. It wouldn't actually destroy the clone, but it startled it just enough for it to disperse itself by instinct. _'Though, of course, if he were more experienced with the clones or more skilled at ignoring pain, mere rocks wouldn't do it...'_ It was good for the boy's sake that he was. Otherwise he would've been targeted by something sharper. Even now, the oinin would've preferred to use something else. Senbon needles would've been quicker but he’d been ordered not to harm, thus he was using rocks. If it was the original boy he would only get a small bruise and nothing more.

The clone popped out of existence with poof of smoke as the rock hit it. With sigh of irritation the hunter-nin continued on, soon finding another clone and using another rock to disperse it. Within a few minutes, the entire group - including the one clone that had been doing his best to hide - had been dispersed.

 _'Another dud,'_ the man thought with irritation and turned to leave. _'Damn that kid for having this much stamina…'_ Any ninja would've killed to have as much chakra as Uzumaki Naruto seemed to have. The hunter had probably dispersed only a fraction of the boy's clones, but even trying to make as many clones as he had dispersed would've been enough to kill any normal shinobi with immediate chakra exhaustion. _'Have to hand it to the brat, though. He found the one technique perfect for him.'_

He shook his head with begrudging admiration. He had a feeling that the kid would make one powerhouse of a ninja once he was properly trained. _'Though at this rate, it might never happen. If he continues this, he’ll never be accepted as Hidden Leaf shinobi,'_ he thought before shaking his head. It didn't matter right now. What mattered was the boy's capture, as poorly as it was going. Hopefully the other hunters had better luck at finding the boy amongst these copies than he did.

It was a pity the hunter-nin had no special eye based technique to see through illusions. While he hurried on, he never noticed the slightly disoriented spider that stumbled and vanished into the undergrowth.

 

* * *

 

 _'Not one my best plans,'_ Naruto the spider thought while trying to figure which way was up and which way was down. It was a blessing that despite having a spider form he had human's eyesight, otherwise it would've been much more confusing, trying to figure out his way among the bushes and plants. _'Woah, big plants…'_

Shaking his eight limbed body, the spider looked around.  _'Well it worked, though. The clone was dispersed, but whoever it was never noticed me, otherwise I'd be squashed right now,'_ he mused. _'But now what?'_

He didn't dare change forms, not knowing if there was still someone around. Though he was regaining his strength as more of the clones were dispersed, he couldn't create more in this situation. _'But I can't stay as a freaking spider either. I need something better. Something… faster.'_ The spider thought about it for a moment before grinning in a way only a spider could, eight eyes gleaming. _'I know.'_

There was a tiny poof of smoke amongst the bushes before a red fox shot out from among them and straight into a dead run. The fox was small enough to remain mostly hidden in undergrowth and out of sight and was inconspicuous enough for no one to pay attention to even if they passed him by. Hopefully.

 _'So long, suckers!'_ Naruto the fox thought with triumph glancing over his furry shoulder to the direction he had came from. _'Just watch me! Watch the demon fox of Hidden Leaf that you hated so much! I will be great, I will be the best - I'll be a goddamned hero! And I will show you, all of you that even a demon can be kind!'_

In Hidden Leaf, the search for Naruto continued until early morning before all the clones had been hunted down and dispersed and the Hokage was forced to call his people back and change plans. Every active ninja was told of the incident and that Naruto was to be captured on sight - and the scroll was to be secured immediately - if chance ever presented itself.

And thus Naruto became one of the few missing-nin of Hidden Leaf who wasn't even an official ninja.


End file.
